Muzaffarpur/Darbhanga: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday unleashed a no-holds-barred attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of doing “anything for votes” and alleging that the BJP was running the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar “through remote control”.
Gandhi made the statements, kicking off his assembly poll campaign in the state by holding back-to-back rallies in Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga.
Addressing joint rallies alongside the INDIA bloc’s CM face Tejashwi Yadav, “You must have seen the drama on TV that Modi was going to take a dip in the Yamuna for Chhath Puja. It was shelved when it was exposed that a puddle had been formed with clean, piped water since the river is so dirty.”
“Narendra Modi is ready to enact all types of drama. You try telling him at a poll rally that, Mr Prime Minister, we will vote for you if you dance. He will readily perform Bharat Natyam,” he claimed.
Gandhi asserted that under the leadership of Yadav, a RJD leader, a new government would be formed in Bihar, and it would ensure that the interests of all sections of society, cutting across caste and religious lines, are taken care of.
“I will ask the people of the state, especially the extremely backward classes, to give up the illusion that the government is run by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. It is a government run through remote control, by the BJP, which does not care for Bihar,” he said.
“The clothes that you wear mostly carry the label made in China. I want to see the day when these shall be replaced by made in Bihar. But this cannot happen under a dispensation which works for big business houses. It requires a boost to small and medium-scale industries, which the BJP destroyed through measures like demonetisation and flawed GST,” he alleged.
Gandhi claimed that it was at the Congress’s insistence that the Modi government agreed to a caste census.
“Two Indias are emerging. One belongs to the common people, and the other to five or 10 billionaires. This is the reason that places like Bihar suffer in poverty, with its vast potential remaining untapped,” he alleged.
Gandhi, the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, also pilloried the PM for stating that cheap internet had made social media accessible to even the poor.
“Why does Modi not also reveal that he has allowed the monopoly of one business house in the telecom sector. Moreover, he wants people to get addicted to reels and Instagram because he cannot give them jobs,” he claimed.
He “challenged” PM Modi to refute US President Trump, who has been repeatedly saying that Operation Sindoor was stopped under American pressure.
“Modi is scared of Trump, a far cry from Indira Gandhi, who stuck to her stand on Bangladesh in the face of international pressure,” he claimed.
The Congress leader, who had carried out a Voter Adhikar Yatra in Bihar a couple of months ago, also alleged that “they stole the polls in Maharashtra and Haryana. They will try to do the same in Bihar”.
“Theft of votes is an assault on the Constitution of Babasaheb Ambedkar. We are committed to protecting the Constitution,” said Gandhi.
He also spoke of the glorious ancient past of Bihar, mentioning the Nalanda University, and added, “Your potential is still evident. People from the state are doing well in Dubai, Mauritius, Seychelles and America.”
“Your potential needs to be tapped. The modern Nalanda University was a brainchild of the previous Congress-led government at the Centre. I foresee a future when Americans would come to Bihar for higher learning,” he said.
“You are also able to understand political intricacies in a matter of seconds. I would urge you not to be swayed by the drama of Narendra Modi,” he added.
